Brigitte Macron faces criticism after using sexist insult about activists 

French First Lady Brigitte Macron is facing criticism after a video emerged of her using a sexist slur against feminist activists who disrupted the show of an actor-comedian once accused of rape.

Macron’s team said on Tuesday that she had intended to criticise their “radical method” of protest.

The scene filmed on Sunday showed France’s first lady in discussion backstage at the Folies Bergère theatre in central Paris with actor Ary Abittan before a performance he was about to give.

The previous night, feminist campaigners had disrupted his show, wearing masks of the actor bearing the word “rapist” and shouting, “Abittan, rapist!”

A woman in 2021 accused the actor of rape, but in 2023, investigators dropped the case, citing a lack of evidence.

Before Sunday’s performance, Macron is seen in the video, published by local media Public on Monday, asking him how he was feeling. When he said he was feeling scared, Macron was heard jokingly responding, using a vulgar expression in French, “If there are any stupid bitches, we’ll kick them out”.

The feminist campaign group “Nous Toutes” (“All of Us”) said its activists disrupted Abittan’s show to protest what it described as “the culture of impunity” around sexual violence in France.

The group later turned the insult into a hashtag on social media, #sallesconnes, and many shared it in a show of support.

Among those was actor Judith Godreche, who has become a feminist icon since accusing two directors of sexually abusing her when she was a minor and calling for an end to such behaviour in France’s cultural sector.

“We too are stupid bitches,” she posted on Instagram.

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An activist who took part in the action, and who gave the pseudonym of Gwen to avoid repercussions, said the collective was “profoundly shocked and scandalised” by Macron’s language.

“It’s yet another insult to victims and feminist groups,” she said.

The first lady’s team argued her words should be seen as “a critique of the radical method employed by those who disrupted the show”.

France has been rocked by a series of accusations of rape and sexual assault against well-known cultural figures in recent years.

Screen icon Gerard Depardieu was convicted in May of sexually assaulting two women on a film set in 2021, and is to stand trial charged with raping an actor in 2018. He denies any wrongdoing.

French President Emmanuel Macron in 2023 had expressed admiration for Depardieu, saying  at the time the actor was the target of a “manhunt” and that he stood behind the presumption of innocence.

Opponents of President Macron on the left wing of French politics criticised his wife’s use of a sexist slur, and some said she should apologise.

The critics included former French President François Hollande. Speaking to broadcaster RTL, Hollande said: “There’s a problem of vulgarity.”

But on the French far-right, National Rally lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy said Brigitte Macron’s comments were delivered in private and “stolen”.

“If each of us were filmed backstage saying things with friends, I think there would be plenty to comment on,” he told broadcaster BFMTV. “All of this is very hypocritical.”